Eight-year sentence for rape attempt

A construction worker who viciously beat and attempted to rape an 18-year-old student as she walked home after drinking with friends has been given an eight-year sentence with the final nine months suspended.

Arunas Cervinskas (32) from Lithuania attacked the girl after she encountered him on her way home alone.

Gardaí were able to track him down through his phone number as the girl had given him her number just prior to the offence and he had called her mobile to verify it was correct. The young woman suffered a broken nose, fractured jaw and shattered eye socket.

She also suffered significant bruising to her head, neck and chest and a cut which required stitching.

Cervinskas of Shanliss Avenue, Santry, pleaded guilty to attempted rape of the girl on May 18th, 2006, in a Dublin suburb. A jury had been sworn in for his trial last December, which ran for a number of days in legal argument before Cervinskas entered his guilty plea.

Lúan Ó Braonáin SC, prosecuting, told Mr Justice George Birmingham that the DPP’s view was that this offence lay at the upper part of the scale but at the lower end of the upper part of the scale. The judge said the level of violence in the case was “quite shocking”.